On June 14, the Manufacturing Leadership Council gave its coveted Lifetime Achievement Award to Leo Reddy at its Gala Awards Dinner in Huntington Beach CA.

In introducing Leo, the Council commented, "Throughout his long and distinguished career, Leo Reddy has been an inspiring and continuous source of leadership, founding and growing institutions that continue to benefit the manufacturing industry while also serving his country with distinction."

On June 22 at the 53rd Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference hosted by SkillsUSA, MSSC and Amatrol launched the MSSC CPT + Skill Boss training machine for Certified Production Technicians (CPT) , a
revolutionary assessment and training device engineered by Amatrol. Lightweight and portable, "Skill Boss" will enable any high school, community college, and manufacturer to offer CPT hands-on certification and training in advanced manufacturing core technical competencies at low cost. (See Skill Boss brochure for details).

"As a longtime supporter of the CPT program, GE Appliances greatly welcomes the Skill Boss hands-on certification component to the CPT training program. We believe giving students the opportunity to demonstrate what they know is just as important as their knowledge gained through their coursework," states Eric Leef, Executive HR leader of the Supply Chain at GE Appliances, a Haier company.

"The launch of the Skill Boss supports one of our goals to engage young people in gaining the higher skills needed in today's technology-intensive manufacturing world," said Sam Bottum, a SkillsUSA board member and Chief Marketing Officer at Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE: SNA), a global manufacturer of tools, equipment, diagnostics, and systems solutions for professional users. "At SkillsUSA, we emphasize not only the 'cool factor' of today's high-tech manufacturing jobs but also the opportunity to enjoy a high quality of life."

On June 15 President Trump signed an Executive Order to ramp up apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships to help close the skills gap.

The President broadly defined apprenticeship as any "arrangement that includes a paid-work component and an educational or instructional component, wherein an individual obtains workplace-relevant knowledge and skills."

The President's order looks to establish industry-recognized, industry-defined apprenticeships and says that "the Secretaries of Commerce and Labor shall promote apprenticeships to business leaders across critical industry sectors, including manufacturing, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and health care".

The order will double the amount of money for apprenticeship grants to almost $200 million annually. The order also calls on Congress to allow student loans to apply to technical college education or on the job training.

Ultimately the Trump administration is hoping to close the skills gap in industry sectors like manufacturing. In a press conference President Trump said this order would "expand apprenticeships and vocational training to help all Americans find a rewarding career, earn a great living and support themselves, and their families and love going to work in the morning". Federal agencies are working on more detailed regulations needed to implement the Executive Order and forming a task force for this purpose.

President releases FY2018 budget proposal

President Trump released his FY2018 budget proposal in mid-May, which included a 15% percent decrease in Perkins Basic State Grant, ultimately being $168 Million cut to the grant's budget.

ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson and Advance CTE Executive Director Kimberly Green released a joint statement addressing the President's proposal saying, "While the Trump Administration talks about supporting workforce and skills development, this dramatic cut is nothing short of an attack on CTE and the students and employers who benefit from it. At a time when millions of job openings go unfilled every year due to shortages in the skilled, technical workforce, President Trump should double-down on an investment in CTE, not propose drastic cuts."

They went on to press the administration's stance saying "this budget falls woefully short in its commitment to students, employers, and the next generation American workforce. We urge the President to review the far-reaching impact CTE has on all facets of the economy, and to make investing in CTE a priority".

Their full statement can be found here. To see a list of President Trump's reference to CTE click here.

House passes Perkins Reauthorization bill

After unanimous approval from the House Education and the Workforce Committee, the bill to reauthorize Perkins funding (H.R. 2353) was passed on in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday June 22. The bill will extend the Perkins Act through to Fiscal Year 2023. This bill promotes work-based learning and encourages states to blend their CTE programs with job training. This bipartisan effort led by Representatives Thompson (R-PA) and Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) shows the commitment from law makers on both sides of the aisle to Career and Technical Education.

The bill will be introduced to the senate in the coming months. Please write to your Senators, encouraging their support for the reauthorization of the Perkins Act.

On June 7, the Business Roundtable (BRT) released an important report, entitled "How CEOs Are Helping Close America's Skills Gap." A highly influential voice in federal policy circles, the BRT is an association of CEOs from many of America's leading corporations.

The report defines the lack of skilled workers as a "
national crisis threatening our economic future." Industry certifications play a key role in the BRT's proposed solution for closing the skills gap both at the K-12 and postsecondary levels.

Advanced manufacturing employees in Jackson County may become a Certified Production Technician and increase their earning potential through a free certification program offered by Ivy Tech Community College this fall at the Jackson County Learning Center in Seymour.

The program will offer MSSC training, an industry-led training, assessment and certification system focused on the core skills and knowledge needed by the nation's front-line production and material handling workers.

In 2016, Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky became the first high school in the state to fully integrate the Certified Production Technician (CPT) program within one of the existing manufacturing pathways of study, Manufacturing Engineering Technology Technician. This came in response to regional employers' need for a pipeline of highly-skilled, entry-level production workers. Local employers such as GE Appliances, Louisville Ford Assembly Plant, Bigelow Tea, Universal Woods, KCC and others worked together to address their skill needs and seek solutions that would help their companies, and also the community at large.

In April 2016, this group of regional employers released a report that targeted increasing CPT as goal #1 to address the shortage of qualified, highly-skilled production workers and to build a pipeline to meet their needs.

Already employers are seeing the results of an excited and engaged student body and the potential for these students post-graduation - either in higher education or landing their first full-time job